Comments on: Are there any web-based services that will show me what my webpage looks like in different engines?

Question: Are there any web-based services that will show me what my webpage looks like in different engines?

jpburns — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 07:21:32 -0800

Is there any web-based service that will image (render) a webpage using specific rendering engines, and then email or display the result? I'm developing on a Mac, and experiencing some weird Explorer 6 CSS problems, and don't have a PC handy to troubleshoot.

By: Hartster

Hartster — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 07:47:38 -0800

There's BrowserCam which may still have a free 24-hour trial.

By: ralawrence

ralawrence — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 07:56:55 -0800

Unfortunately this site only emulated really old browsers.

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:07:15 -0800

Another nod for BrowserCam. I'm on a mac, too, and I was able to tweak some problems with my site within their trial period -- it was a lifesaver.

By: jpburns

jpburns — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:30:56 -0800

BrowserCam is exactly what I had in mind.

I WISH they were more reasonable; I'd subscribe for a year if it was < $50 (instead of $479.40).br>
Thanks.

By: furtive

furtive — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:31:35 -0800

An alternate suggestion would be to install a virtual machine and put Windows on it. I've heard performance is very good on Macs. Not being a Mac user myself I wouldn't know which ones to suggest.

By: AlexReynolds

AlexReynolds — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:40:40 -0800

An alternate suggestion would be to install a virtual machine and put Windows on it. I've heard performance is very good on Macs. Not being a Mac user myself I wouldn't know which ones to suggest.

Virtual machines are slow. If you have access to one, better to use a real Windows machine and a RDC client to view and control its desktop from your Mac.

By: Captaintripps

Captaintripps — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 10:03:53 -0800

I also design my web pages on a Mac. While I do have a PC handy, I've noticed that IE 6 renders the pages just as incorrectly and usually with the exact same mistakes as the last release of IE for Mac, if that helps you at all.

By: onalark

onalark — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 10:12:00 -0800

Virtual machines are slow

I disagree...

Virtual machines are fairly quick on Macs due to the endian-agnosticism (oh what a sweet word) of the PowerPC architecture -- you can get Pentium II class performance using VirtualPC (formerly Connectix, now Microsoft) with anything G4 or better. That should more than suit your needs for testing out a web browser.

And just so this isn't a total derail, the 24-hour free trial is still available on BrowserCam :-).

By: kindall

kindall — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 10:30:20 -0800

Virtual machines are fairly quick on Macs due to the endian-agnosticism (oh what a sweet word) of the PowerPC architecture

They removed this feature from the G5, which is why you need a new version of Virtual PC for the latest Macs. They had to go back to byte-swapping the old-fashioned way.

By: armoured-ant

armoured-ant — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 21:20:24 -0800

Having used (and still, very occasionally, using) Virtual PC 7 for OS X on a dual 2.0GHz G5, I can vouch that it is really, really annoyingly slow to run XP. I've yet to try it with ME or 98SE, but I'm not sure that I could be bothered waiting.